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Very soon, Martha Karua and Amos Kimunya will be our heroes!

By: Jerry Okungu

[ Posted On: 2006-06-19 ]

Hon Martha Karua plans to take the KACC Act back to Parliament for amendments. She is not happy with aspects of the Act that allow Aaron Ringera and his staff to fleece Kenyans in broad day light. Martha Karua thinks that Ringera's level of remuneration cannot be sustained by this fragile economy. Many Kenyans think the same.

But there is another reason that Martha Karua should include when she takes the Act back for amendments. Let her find out if Ringera and co. have performance contracts. If so, what are their performance bench marks? What are the minimum deliverables that they must deliver within what time frames to justify their continued stay on their jobs or renewal of their contracts?

The Anti- Corruption chief has been on the job for two years. He seems not to have delivered results of any nature. He promised Kenyans that the year 2006 would be the year of action. He promised to move mountains in the crusade against corruption.

Six months into the year, we have yet to see a single thief of public coffers enter the gates of jail due to Ring era's efforts. Some body should tell Ringera that fighting corruption has to be tangible and quantitative. It is not an academic exercise. It is not an end in itself. It is a means to an end- that end means jailing criminals of Golden Berg, Anglo Leasing and Ndungu' Land scams. If you can't do it; you must quit.

Hon Amos Kimunya shares the glory for decency with Martha Karua. He, like Karua has somehow listened to the voices of ordinary Kenyans. He plans to tax every Kenyan who until recently was beyond the reach of the taxman not because this class was poor and incapable but because they were rich, powerful and privileged. We are here talking of our cabinet ministers, their assistants, members of parliament, judges and other well placed public servants that enjoy security of tenure.

As ordinary Kenyan workers continued to carry the burden of taxation to pay for this class's luxuries, our masters in the same vein continued to enjoy endless tax holidays. Now Kimunya plans to raise close to Ksh. 1 billion annually from this group. That kind of cash can do wonders for development in rural areas. It is time fat cats shed off some fat for public good.

I would like to see these positive thinkings by Karua and Kimunya in another equally different way. When you come to think of it, paying very high salaries to government officials then failing to tax them for whatever reason is dishonesty of the highest order. It is dishonest because these people, just became they have changed status over night does not necessarily remove them from the realities of their yesterday's lives. If anything we punish them in their life after their days in power are gone. Think of JB Otiende, Robert Matano, Paul Ngei and Bildad Kaggia not to mention Odero Jowi. These are the people who enjoyed power and glory with all the packs we are talking about yet they have either died miserably or continue to lead paupers' lives in their twilight years.

If Martha Karua feels that this nation cannot sustain Aaron Ringera's pay packs as much as Amos Kimunya feels there is something stinky about him and his colleagues cheating on Kenyans, they may be dealing with much more serious issues inadvertently.

The debate about whether MPs, Ministers and high ranking government officials should pay taxes has been long and painful. Many ordinary Kenyans have for four decades cracked their heads to understand the logic. And I'm sure Amos Kimunya and Martha Karua, having been to school as recently as the 1980s and '90s must have gone through the same debate. It is this illogical nature of the culture that may have triggered the daring Kimunya to tread where angels of the past have never dared.

We remember with amusement how ordinary MPs used to blackmail David Mwiraria into giving them almost anything lest they deny him his supplementary votes. I hope to God the same MPs may not dare challenge Kimunya to a public duel on this one. They will lose big time.

Pegging Aaron Ringera's salary to those levels of Ksh. 2.5 million a month was not logical. It was an Old Boys Club chaired by one of his cronies that set that salary for one of their own. The claim that a KACC chief had to be paid well to shield him from temptations of bribery was hogwash. It implied that we were recruiting a potentially corrupt fellow to the job. Looked at another way, the committee that gave him that salary scale did no less than bribing the man who would fight bribery just the same way Mwiraria was fond of bribing MPs to pass his finance estimates.

So what do Karua and Kimumya have in common? Although the two ministers hold portfolios that on the surface look diametrically unconnected in terms of mandate, it would be wise to know that the Ministry of Finance has been the bedrock of high stakes corruption in the last fifteen years. If one remembers Golden Berg, Anglo Leasing and other mega financial scams; they all had their roots in the Treasury.

And this is where Martha Karua comes in as Minister for Justice. Her responsibility now more than any other time will be for the next twelve months to bring Treasury raiders to book if she has to leave a legacy worth talking about when her term ends in December 2007.

Lowering salaries of non- performers in government, taxing public servants and pumping more money into the rural areas through CDF is one way of removing responsibility from the Central government while at the same time minimizing legalized corruption.

The other area where reformists in the Kibaki government should focus on is the so called Parliamentary Service Commission. This is the one dragon that must be slain before it blooms into its full size. If it does, it will swallow all of us. This country cannot afford a rogue parliament that is a law unto itself. Some one else must be its watchdog, decide its package, terms of service and develop performance contracts for its members. High stakes corruption; which they at times legalize and legitimize has to be dealt with firmly.

Article Source: http://www.afroarticles.com/article-dashboard

Jerry Okungu is a freelance political analyst based in Nairobi, Kenya. Jerry also serves as a Board Director at The Kenya Broadcasting Corporation. Jerry has written extensively on issues affecting Kenya and the rest of Africa over the years. Other articles written by Jerry Okungu are available at this location

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